Your Smartphone May Be Making You... Not Smart

The smartphone is quickly becoming an extension of the human brain. The latest entry into the market, the iPhone 4S, contains a feature named Siri that (according to the Apple website): "understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back. Siri is so easy to use and does so much, you'll keep finding more and more ways to use it." Now, I love technology as much as anyone (at least when it's working), but as a psychologist, I have to join in the voice of critics who yearn for a simpler, less tecnical age. It's not that I wish to return to the pre-computer age, of paper and pencil, however. Instead, I'm worried that we risk having our brains become vestigial organs. Research on technological tools suggests that offloading our mental functions to these electronic devices could cause our brains to go soft.

Consider the evidence from a study reported in late 2010 by researchers at McGill University. Neuroscientist Veronique Bohbot and her team reported that relying on a global positioning system (GPS) to get to known locations reduces the function of the hippocampus, the "seahorse" shaped structure in the brain that controls memory and spatial orientation. Participants used to getting around on the basis of their own wits had higher activity and a greater volume in the hippocampus than the older adults using a GPS. What's more, when it came to their actual performance, the non-GPS users performed better on a memory test. Bohbot recommends that you turn off the GPS when you're navigating around your hometown and use it only for its actual purpose of finding locations you've never been to before. Your hippocampus will thank you, whether you're 16 or 60.

It's not much of a leap to extrapolate from the GPS to the smartphone. A normal cellphone can remember numbers for you so that you no longer have to do so. Confess-- can you remember the actual cellphone number of the people you call most frequently? We used to rely on our neurons to hold onto these crucial bits of information. Now they reside somewhere out there in the ether. What's worse is that most people don't even take the time to write down a new phone number anymore. You call your new acquaintance and your new acquaintance calls you, and the information is automatically stored in your contacts. It's great for efficiency's sake, but you've now given your working memory one less important exercise. Memory benefits from practice, especially in the crucial stage of encoding.

Let's move from phone numbers to information in general. People with smartphones no longer have to remember important facts because when in doubt, they can just tap into Google. When was the last time St. Louis was in the World Series, you wonder? Easy! Just enter a few letters (not even the whole city name) into your "smart" search engine. Your fingers, much less your mind, don't have to walk very far at all. Trying to give your brain a workout with a crossword puzzle? What's to stop you from taking a few shortcuts when the answers are right there on your phone? No mental gymnastics necessary.

This leads us to Siri, that seductress of the smartphone. With your iPhone slave on constant standby, you don't even have to key in your questions. Just say the question, and Siri conjures up the answer in an instant. With a robot at your fingertips, why even bother to look the information up yourself?

The irony is that smartphones have the potential to make our brains sharper, not dumber. Researchers are finding that videogame play involving rapid decision-making can hone your cognitive resources. Older adults, in particular, seem to be able to improve their attentional and decision-making speeded task performance when they play certain games. People with a form of amnesia in which they can't learn new information can also be helped by smartphones, according to a study conducted by Canadian researchers (Svobodo & Richards, 2009).

The problem is not the use of the smartphone itself; the problem comes when the smartphone takes over a function that your brain is perfectly capable of performing. It's like taking the elevator instead of the stairs; the ride may be quicker but your muscles won't get a workout. Smartphones are like mental elevators. Using your smartphone to play music too loud and too long directly into your ears can also cause premature hearing loss.

Psychologists have known for years that the "use it or lose it" principle is key to keeping your brain functioning in its peak condition throughout your life. As we become more and more drawn to these sleeker and sexier gadgets, the trick will be learning how to "use it." So take advantage of these 5 tips to help your smartphone keep you smart:

1. Don't substitute your smartphone for your brain. Force yourself to memorize a phone number before you store it, and dial your frequently called numbers from memory whenever possible. If there's a fact or word definition you can infer, give your brain the job before consulting your electronic helper.

2. Turn off the GPS app when you're going to familiar places. Just like the GPS-hippocampus study showed, you need to keep your spatial memory as active as possible by relying on your brain, not your phone, when you're navigating well-known turf. If you are using the GPS to get around a new location, study a map first. Your GPS may not really know the best route to take (as any proper Bostonian can tell you!).

3. Use your smartphone to keep up with current events. Most people use their smartphones in their leisure time for entertainment. However, with just a few easy clicks, you can just as easily check the headlines, op-eds, and featured stories from respected news outlets around the world. This knowledge will build your mental storehouse of information, and make you a better conversationalist as well.

4. Build your social skills with pro-social apps. Some videogames can actually make you a nicer person by strengthening your empathic tendencies. Twitter and Facebook can build social bonds. Staying connected is easier than ever, and keeping those social bonds active provides you with social support. Just make sure you avoid some of the social media traps of over-sharing and FOMO (fear of missing out) syndrome.

5. Turn off your smartphone while you're driving. No matter how clever you are at multitasking under ordinary circumstances, all experts agree that you need to give your undivided attention to driving when behind the wheel. This is another reason to look at and memorize your route before going someplace new. Fiddling with your GPS can create a significant distraction if you find that it's given you the wrong information.

Smartphones have their place, and can make your life infinitely more productive as long as you use yours to supplement, not replace, your brain.

I don't think you have to worry too much about our brains being taken over by smartphones.

Contrary to popular opinion smartphones and computers are actually pretty dumb. They are just good at doing simple things really fast. Siri looks kind of cool, but AI in books and movies is a fantasy that exists outside of the realm of AI in computer science.

It uses some pretty good voice recognition along with a fuzzy keyword search (it looks up related terms so that things like "umbrella" show up in a database as linked to "weather"). It can also recognize some basic sentence structure and terms (what, have, is, does) which gives it some ability to tell which application to use. Similar to how IBM's Watson interprets questions.

It can then perform a set or preprogrammed functions based on that information such as setting a reminder, calendar appointment, call somebody, wolfram alpha search, or google search.

However, computers lack the ability of problem solving or critical thinking which is something you can't really program. So while computers will reduce functions like memorizing phone numbers (didn't most people address books on paper before anyway?) or hitting buttons to put in a reminder, won't be able to take away from learning or memorizing a process. Sure simple facts don't need to be memorized as much, but computers won't help with actual understanding of any of those facts.

Hi Anonymous, I agree that computers can't do the critical thinking or problem solving (yet!) but my issue is that by off-loading tasks involving, e.g., vocabulary or factual information, we're exercising our memories less. We're also less likely to be using working memory to practice and rehearse new info. It's lose it or use it, as far as I'm concerned! Thanks so much for your comments. Best, Susan

High tech world is not compulsary, one may choose whatever and however it pleases him. A prerogative but gush... A study?.. Embrace it or not, it is up to the end users. So many studiesof blah blah giving those who can not afford a soothing reason or comfort those losers who even in hi-tech world, stays dumb and gets dumber. Come on, does everything needs to be a big deal just to be able to say something ?to think, they are non-users of what they criticize. You like it? You want it? You believe it? Can afford it... Then GET IT, opposite of those.... Then don't ... Big deal!

I think you're missing the point here. She's not advising readers not to get it or even criticizing Siri. We as people shouldn't allow new technology to become a permanent part of our lives where we can't function without them. Being an owner of the new iPhone 4S, I don't take this blog as an offensive way of saying that I'm going to become dumber by relying on Siri and the built in GPS. The warning here is to keep our brain thinking independently before we rely too much on technology. The finishing statement says it all basically by saying that technology should not replace our brains but be used as an add-on to make things easier.

By the way, Susan Whitbourne is my Psych 100 professor. One can learn a lot by reading her blogs.

This is an interesting dialogue and I appreciate the input of both of you. I do think that my student has interpreted the article the way I intended to. We don't have to ditch our smartphones; just use them wisely! Best, Susan

Loved the article. This is what has been on my mind since reading The Shallows by Nicolas Carr.
I'm always trying to convince people that if they don't do things the long way that they'll forget how, and I go into detail about what's happening in the brain because of my interest of neuroscience. The brain is very adaptable but it's not always a good thing because it will easily adapt to what you spend the most time on and as for the information that is rarely used, it's soon forgotten to make room for new information to be stored.
These days I use my smart phone for math revision, astronomy related events, social networking and as a phone. There are so many free apps that came with my phone that I rarely use like the Google voice recognition search. I've used it twice. And GPS drains my phones battery.

I disagree when people say this isn't a problem because the technology is 'dumb' or that people have a choice. Indeed people have a choice but most people like to follow a crowd. The generation below me has been brought up on this stuff and will probably never do things long hand. Some people cannot think for themselves and so do what people around them do. People like us, we think and we weigh all the options and most of our decisions involve some rational independent thinking.

But I do agree that this technology is limited, unlike the potential of our brain. We need to use our brain more than a man made piece of technology that will break as soon as you drop it. How many brains have you accidently flushed down the toilet?

I totally agree with this article. The fact that we don't stimulate our memory anymore because we have access to a universal information provider ( the Net ) or because our phone in this case is use as a storage for our thoughts, is killing our memory's efficiency. We rely too much on our devices and don't use our brain anymore which made it a tool that is, in longterm, forgetting his abilities. This is like everything, if you don't practice first you don't improve but you can also get worst. Nowadays you don't have to remember the pure content of informations you just have to be able to say where you find it (which website, what key words you wrote on google, which file..). Another good exemple is the note file in our phone which allow us to write down everything that is in our mind because we are to afraid to forget about it. We should all be able to store our information our on own and don't rely on our devices.